Health Information

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) esophagitis is a viral infection of the esophagus, the muscular tube through which food travels from the mouth to the stomach.

See also:

• CMV gastroenteritis
• CMV retinitis
• Cytomegalovirus - immunocompromised host
• Congenital cytomegalovirus

Cytomegalovirus esophagitis

CMV is caused by the cytomegalovirus (CMV). This condition usually affects people who have a weakened immune system.

Symptoms include:

• Difficult and painful swallowing
• Low-grade fever
• Mouth sores (oral lesions)

• Blood and urine culture
• CMV antigenemia
• Cold agglutinins
• Culture of cells obtained from an esophageal brushing
• Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) with or without a biopsy

Treatment involves antiviral medications that are given through a vein (intravenous) or by mouth (orally).

Esophagitis can usually be treated effectively. The outcome depends upon the immune system problem that makes the person susceptible to the infection.

• Infection at other sites
• Recurrent infection

Call your health care provider if you develop symptoms of CMV esophagitis, especially if you have a suppressed immune system.

Preventing AIDS can help avoid opportunistic infections, such as those caused by the cytomegalovirus. (Opportunistic infections are infections by organisms that are not normally disease-producing, but that take advantage of a situation, such as a damaged immune system.) People with AIDS who are effectively treated with antiretroviral therapy are much less likely to get CMV infection.